Clinical Procedure Experience of Medical Students Improves Their Objective Structured Clinical Examination Station Scores in Emergency Medicine Clerkship

Objective: We aimed to study the correlation between procedure experiences in the clinical setting and objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) scores achieved at the end of an emergency medicine clerkship for the final-year medical students. Methods: This is a retrospective analysis of prospectively collected clinical data of 141 final-year medical students and their OSCE scores for the two consecutive academic years (2015-2017). The experience of practical skills including suturing, extended focused assessment sonography for trauma (EFAST), airway management, and cardiopulmonary resuscitation was correlated with the final OSCE scores in the same areas. Results: Weighted experiences of the four procedures were significantly correlated with the total OSCE station scores (p = 0.027, Spearman's rho = 0.19). Suturing OSCE scores were significantly higher than the other stations (p < 0.0001, Wilcoxon signed-rank test). There was a significant correlation between suturing experience and its OSCE score (p = 0.036, Spearman’s rho = 0.18). There was also a strong trend in correlation between EFAST experience and its OSCE score (p = 0.063, Spearman’s rho = 0.16). There was a significant difference in weighted experience between each of the four procedures (p < 0.0001, Wilcoxon signed-rank test). In all cut-off levels (75-95) of OSCE scores, students showed higher weighted procedure experience for those who had higher scores. Statistical significance was found only for students who scored more than 90% of the OSCE score. Conclusion: Clinical experience of procedures improved OSCE scores of the same procedures. The top students showed significant higher weighted procedure experience.